September 2, 2019
“What I cannot create, I do not understand” -Richard Feynman.
Machine Learning and Neural Networks are both hot topics in the software development world right now and as such, resources to learn about them are ubiquitous. There’s tons of online courses on sites like Udemy and Edx, Youtube videos, articles and books. While it’s great to have so many options, it can be overwhelming to someone approaching the topic without much previous knowledge or university experience like myself.
I’ve personally coded along with Youtube videos, read online articles/guides and messed around python packages like Keras and Tensorflow. While that’s given me a good baseline, I think books are the best way to wholly grasp a new subject rather than bouncing around between different online resources to get the same information. After a bit of research, I’ve began reading one which I now think is a great place to start for people that are brand new to the subject.
The book is titled Make Your Own Neural Network by Tariq Rashid and the kindle edition is currently selling for only 4 dollars!
The book starts with a significant amount of prerequisite information that seems to go on for a bit longer than I’d personally like, but if you’re completely new to the subject and concepts like matrix math, it is an excellent resource. It’s also written in mostly layman terms so it’s not a very difficult read.
The second and third sections which comprise the second half of the book focus on basic programming in python to get you to a point where the sample code can be read easily. Rashid begins it from the standpoint of someone with little to no experience programming in python or in general so again, great for beginners. The rest focuses on creating a neural network to categorize handwritten numbers which is a common but comprehensive exercise in machine learning education. There’s also some good bits at the end about calculus fundamentals and running the programs he discussed on a Raspberry Pi.
Overall I’d say it’s an excellent book to begin with if you have little or no programming/machine learning experience and want a single book that will guide you through the process of making your own neural networks!
Book link:
